The invention relates to a sealable packaging container comprising a packaging tray and a packaging lid each having a circumferential area. The invention further relates to a packaging machine having an upper part and a lower part arranged vertically moveable against each other. Finally the invention relates to a method of evacuating and sealing a packaging container in a packaging machine.
Sealable packaging containers comprising a packaging tray and a packaging lid are well known state of the art. The containers are usually produced by thermoforming of a multilayer plastic film wherein a tray and a lid are formed in different dies. Subsequently, the containers are filled and, particularly when serving as containers for food and the like, evacuated or optionally filled with a gas or a gas mixture and finally sealed.
The containers are usually evacuated through openings drilled into the container which are subsequently relocked. This method of evacuating and sealing containers known in prior art is thus costly and in many cases incomplete.
It was therefore an object of the invention to develop a sealable container which can be opened, evacuated and sealed in one single workstation, a packaging machine for evacuating and sealing a container in one single chamber and a method of evacuating and sealing a sealable container which does not have the disadvantages of prior art.